1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an air conditioning system and a damper pipe unit therefor and more particularly an air conditioning system and a damper pipe unit therefor which are used for heating and cooling a plurality of discrete spaces.
2. Prior Art Statement
Air conditioning systems and damper pipe units for heating and cooling a plurality of discrete spaces are disclosed, for example, in Japanese Utility Model Publication Nos. 61(1986)-22201 and 62(1987)-14519, Japanese Patent Publication No. 50(1975)-374546 and Japanese Patent Public Disclosures 50(1975)-91937, 57(1982)-196029 and 62(1987)-37633.
When one or more air conditioner units are used for heating and cooling a plurality of discrete spaces such as the rooms of a building, it has been generally necessary to supply the conditioned air to the individual rooms via ducts.
In the conventional air conditioning systems, certain problems arise depending on the distance between the air conditioning unit and the respective rooms and the layout of the ducts with respect to the individual rooms. Among these are, for instance, that the amount of conditioned air delivered tends to vary between different rooms, adjustment of the amount of delivered air is complex operationally and/or in terms of equipment installation, unpleasant noise produced by the throttling action of dampers provided within the ducts and by the operation of the dampers themselves can be heard within the rooms, and crosstalk can be heard between two separate rooms when the dampers for both are simultaneously open.
From the point of efficiency in operation, installation and maintenance, the conventional systems have also been in need of improvement as regards the mounting of the electrical control boards for damper opening/closing and other types of control, the wiring layout among the various units, and the mounting of the dampers.
The general practice has been to provide dampers in the ducts of the air conditioning system and to use these dampers for adjusting the cross-sectional area of the duct passages to thereby adjust the passage of air, the amount of conditioned air delivered and the like. The degree of damper opening has been controlled by the use of actuators or the like.
However, since in the conventional air conditioning systems the dampers are unitarily fixed to the ducts and the like, the efficiency of inspection and maintenance work has been bad both for the dampers and their actuators.
It has further been the conventional practice to change the degree of damper opening by replacing a stop member or the like. The efficiency of this work in actual on-site situations is, however, quite poor and, moreover, the stops can provide only stepwise adjustment, making it difficult to obtain uniform air flow rates.
These problems are particularly pronounced in the case of an air conditioning system in which a large number of ducts for heating and cooling a plurality of discrete spaces have to be installed, serviced and repaired.